The Church will Match Christ as Bone of His Bones for their Eternal Married Life

Only those who are regenerated by Christ and who live by Christ as the church can match Christ and complement Him; when Christ sees this, He will surely say that this time this is bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh.

Adam and Eve are a rich type of Christ and the church; just as Eve was taken out of Adam, built with the element of Adam, and returned to Adam to be his counterpart as his wife, so the church was taken out of Christ, was built with the element of Christ, and returns to Christ as His counterpart to match Him as His wife.

As believers in Christ we need to love the Lord; He is our Bridegroom, and we are His bride. We need to love the Lord with the first love, and we need to do the first works – the works coming out of our first love for the Lord.

When we are about to do something in the church life, and there’s a mournful attitude in us, this means that we need to turn to the Lord and learn to walk in spirit with Christ as our joy.

We all need to develop and maintain a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with the Lord.

We need to let Him draw us, let Him kiss us with the kisses of His mouth, and be affectionate with Him by telling Him, Lord Jesus, I love You! We need to exercise our spirit and enter into the Lord’s chambers in our being,which is our mingled spirit, to spend time with Him and give Him our love.

The relationship between God and man in the Bible is the relationship between a Husband and a Wife: God comes to love and court us, caring for us, and drawing us to Himself, and we as His people love Him, give Him our love, and, even though we go astray from Him, we are drawn back to Him by His love.

Corporately, we are the church as the wife of Christ; though we may have spots and wrinkles and all kinds of problems, when we come to the Lord’s written word with an exercised spirit, we get the Lord’s washing in the word, and we are sanctified and beautified.

Christ today is the life-giving Spirit to sanctify us and cleanse us by the washing of the water in the Word.

He is with our spirit, and He is infusing us with Himself as we come to His word with an exercised spirit, so that He may remove any old elements, any spots, and any wrinkles, and make us the beautiful bride of Christ, the counterpart of Christ.

Living by Christ as the Church to Match Him as “Bone of His Bones and Flesh of His Flesh”

When Adam woke up from the deep sleep God caused him to fall into, he said, This time this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called woman, because out of man this one was taken (see Gen. 2:23).

The Hebrew word for man is “ish” and for woman is “ishshah”; the woman issues out of man – ishshah issues out of ish. The church is a pure product out of Christ, just as Eve was a pure product out of Adam.

On the cross Christ terminated the entire old creation through His all-inclusive death, and in His resurrection Christ produced the church (1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6). The church came into being in the resurrection of Christ; the church is an entity absolutely in resurrection – it is not natural or of the old creation.

We as the church have been resurrected with Christ and are now seated in the heavenlies with Christ. The church is absolutely and purely of the element of Christ, absolutely in resurrection, and absolutely remaining in the heavenlies with Christ; the church is Christly, resurrectionly, and heavenly.

We need to see the vision of the church as the counterpart of Christ being absolutely of the element of Christ, and anything that is not of Christ, of resurrection, and of the heavens will be exposed and eliminated.

Only those who are regenerated of Christ and who live by Christ as the church can match Christ and complement Him. Unbelievers can’t match Christ or have part with Him, and un-transformed and immature believers also can’t match Christ.

But if we have the divine life, live by the divine life, live by Christ, and are the church, we will match Christ to complement Him. When Christ sees this, He surely says, “This time this is bones of My bones and flesh of My flesh” (see Gen. 2:23; Eph. 5:30).

Christ can’t marry or be matched with something that is not like Him, the same as He in life, nature, and expression; when the church is fully built with the element of Christ in resurrection, and when we all live by Christ as the church, we will match Christ, and we will be bones of His bones and flesh of His flesh.

Just as Eve was the increase of Adam, the church as the bride of Christ is the increase of Christ as the Bridegroom (see John 3:29-30). He who has the bride is the Bridegroom; we must decrease, and the Bridegroom must increase, and we will become the increase of the Bridegroom to be the Bride of Christ to match Him!

Adam and Eve became one flesh, a complete unit; this is a figure of God and man being joined as one. The coming New Jerusalem will be the eternal union of God and man, a universal couple as a complete unit composed of divinity and humanity. Wow!

Lord Jesus, we want to live by Christ as the church to match Him as His counterpart, so that the church may be bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh. Thank You for regenerating us with the divine life to make us part of the church, Your counterpart. Grow in us, Lord, and cause us to live by Christ to match Christ and complement Him. Amen, Lord, gain the church as the bride of Christ, the increase of Christ as the Bridegroom! Gain an entity that is fully saturated with Your element to match You as Your counterpart!

In the New Jerusalem the Consummated God is the Universal Husband living a Married Life with the Glorified Man as the Wife

After God created Adam and built Eve, these two became one flesh, and they lived a married life together as husband and wife (see Gen. 2:24-25); this portrays that, in the New Jerusalem, God will marry man and will live a marriage life together with man forever (Rev. 22:17).

In the New Jerusalem the processed and consummated redeeming Triune God as the universal Husband will live a married life with the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified humanity as the wife forever. Wow!

The entire Bible ends in a similar way as God’s work of restoration and further creation ends in Gen. 2: the married life of the couple that God created in His image.

The revelation concerning the beginning of the divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures (that is, the garden of Eden) and the New Jerusalem (as the end of the divine revelation) reflect each other.

Both contain four main things: (1) the tree of life as the center of God’s eternal economy (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:2), (2) the river flowing to reach the four directions of the earth (Gen. 2:10; Rev. 22:1), (3) three kinds of precious materials (Gen. 2:11-12; Rev. 21:11-14…), and (4) a couple (Gen. 2:18-25; Rev. 21:9-10; 22:17).

At the end of the Bible we see the Spirit and the bride, the church, speaking together as one (see Rev. 22:17); this indicates that the church’s experience of the Spirit has improved and increased to the extent that the church has become one with the Spirit!

From the very beginning to the very end of the Bible we can see that the revelation in the Holy Word shows us the love story between God and man, a universal couple.

First, the sovereign Lord – who created the universe and all things, the Triune God (the Father, the Son, and the Spirit) – went through a long process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and He became the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God.

Then, the man created by God in His image and likeness is a tripartite man – composed of spirit, soul, and body – and he goes through a process of being created, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified, to constitute the church, the expression of God, the counterpart of Christ.

The consummated God as the Spirit is the universal Husband, and the glorified church is the wife; together, these live a marriage life for eternity, a life that is the mingling of God and man as one spirit, a life that is super-excellent and that overflows with blessings and joy. Hallelujah!

Hallelujah for the Triune God who passed through a process to become the consummated Spirit as the universal Husband to marry the church as His wife! Praise the Lord, we in the church are going through the process of being regenerated, transformed, and glorified, so that we may become the counterpart of Christ. Lord, mingle Yourself more with us today, and keep us in the mingling of God and man, living one spirit with You. We look forward to our wedding day with You, Lord, and we yearn to live a married life together in eternity, a life that is the mingling of God and man as one spirit, a life that is super-excellent and that overflows with blessings and joy!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 2: The Vision of the Lord’s Recovery,” ch. 3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 9, The Status of the Church – the Counterpart of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Fulness, increase, duplication, / His expression full, / Growth and spread, continuation, / Surplus plentiful. / Is the church to Christ, and thereby / God in Christ may be / Glorified through His redeemed ones / To eternity. (Hymns #819)
  # Lord, in this close sweet fellowship, / Lord, be with me so intimate, / So personal and affectionate; / A sweet relationship. / Lord, daily change my inward being / Lord, all my heart possessing / In all my being—transforming / To be Your bride and queen. (Song on the divine romance)
  # To be His people’s Husband, / To take them as His wife: / This is what God desires / To live in marriage life. / Their sacrifice and worship / Alone could not content; / But with them to be married / Was God’s foremost intent. (Song on, The Bible is a romance)